Continuing the old-skool ambient thread...
*Puts on Ned Kelly suit*
Don't own any Tangarine Dream, or Gong, or Wishbone Ash, or records
with teapots on them. A few with bent exhaust pipes tho'...
Mike Oldfield. Ommadawn (1975). Terrific stuff (though it could and
was described as wanky hippy nonsense). Rippling guitars, dinky but
infectious tunes, *real* *african* *drummers* (ie not sampled during
an anthroppological field trip and looped over tacky synths ala Deep
Forest/Enigma bleah.), irish influences, guitars sounding like organs
and all that. And a cutesy song at the end.
Amarok (1990) is pretty good too, apparently its only available on
import in the US, good luck. Similar to Ommadawn, same players,
except it chops and changes every 3 minutes, but with recurring
themes. One track, 60 minutes.
If you like Ommadawn, Hergest Ridge (1974) is alright, though not as
inspired. Pastoral, I think, is the the word.
Five Miles Out (1982), if you can find it cheap, is alright as well,
though not "ambient". though there are still annoying bits in it. If
you don't like people throtting the buggery out of their Fairlights,
don't get it.
Don't get Tubular Bells (1973), it was overhyped (think New Forms :-)
and the bloke was only just working out how to use the gear. Most of
his other stuff isn't terribly mindblowing (from an IDM point of
view) either, but a fair bit of that can be blamed on Virgin
squeezing him dry.
You know, though, i wouldn't mind having a copy of 'oldfield vs the
orb', which supposedly came out in 1992. (Oh yes, BT's remix of
"Let There Be Light" in 1995 was pretty good too...)
Right. Where do I line up to get shot by the punk reactionaries?
--
Graham the Happy Scum KSC KotF (G H Freeman to some) gths@flat-earth.org
Give someone you love the gift of Grudnuk.
http://www.mpx.com.au/~gths
... goodness gracious me, such language!